Prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics for sustainable poultry production

ABSTRACT

Globally, poultry production has been an integral part of human activities, providing a major source of livelihood and food to humans. The continuous increase in the world population with an attendant rise in the demand for safe poultry products requires a global strategy for sustainable poultry production. With growing concerns over antimicrobial resistance, abolition or reduction in the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs), and rising consumer demand for chemical or antibiotic-free products, identifying and applying safe, natural and economical alternatives including prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics for sustainable poultry production has become imperative. The beneficial effects of the dietary inclusion of prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics as AGP alternatives in poultry production include improved poultry health, growth performance and feed efficiency. Generally, the mechanisms through which prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics exert beneficial effects on poultry include competitive exclusion and antagonism of pathogens, modulation of intestinal microbiota, production of antimicrobial substances, stimulation of immune system, and enhancement of nutrient digestibility and intestinal morphology development. The properties and beneficial effects of these emerging alternatives suggest their contribution to the improvement of poultry health, through the stimulation of diverse physiological functions (although not entirely elucidated) with better growth performance and feed efficiency. This review discusses the concept, impacts and mechanisms of the application of prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics in sustainable poultry production. Their general acceptance and application in the poultry industry will undoubtedly result in more sustainable, safe and economic poultry production for feeding the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Prebiotics
• probiotics
• postbiotics
• antibiotic alternatives
• poultry
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and United States Department of Agriculture (BAS-USDA Program, 3rd Phage, LSc 33).

Notes on contributors

Rine Christopher Reuben

Rine Christopher Reuben is a Research Fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Germany. He holds a PhD in Microbiology from Jashore University of Science and Technology through a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Bangladesh Academy of Science (BAS) jointly funded project. For some years now, Rine has been active in teaching and research in areas bordering food safety, antimicrobial resistance, probiotics, epidemiology, microbiome, and one health. He has worked extensively on food safety especially the use of probiotics in the control of foodborne/zoonotic pathogens and sustainable poultry production, emerging infectious diseases including COVID-19, Ebola and Lassa fever. He currently works on microbiome assembly in the light of resource use, antagonism and horizontal genes transfer using the cheese microbiome as a model system.

Shovon Lal Sarkar

Shovon Lal Sarkar is currently working as an Assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Jashore University of Science and Technology. His current research area is on probiotics and its application in poultry. He has an outstanding knowledge in molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics. He has completed his Graduation and Post graduation from the same department and later on joined as a lecturer in 2017.

Pravas Chandra Roy

Pravas Chandra Roy is an Assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Jashore University of Science and Technology. He has recently started his Ph.D. in University of Wyoming, USA in the MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR LIFE SCIENCES program. His research interest is in Molecular Biology, Cell biology, and Probiotics.

Azraf Anwar

Azraf Anwar has completed his Undergrad in Biomedical Engineering from  Columbia University in the City of New York NY, USA and currently doing his MS in Computer Science in the New York University NY, USA. 

M. Anwar Hossain

M. Anwar Hossain is a prominent Microbiologist in Bangladesh. He is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka. He is currently working as a Vice Chancellor in Jashore University of Science and Technology. He has completed his BSc. and MS from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Dhaka. Then he completed this Ph.D. from Tokyo University, Japan. After that he completed his Post Doctoral Degree from Rutgers University, USA. Prof. Anwar has a diversified research expertise in his life. He worked on Vaccine development for Foot and Mouth Disease Virus for Bangladesh. He also worked on Microbiome analysis for the Mastitis disease of Cow. Apart from that he also worked on antibiotic resistance bacteria and arsenic reducing bacteria.

Iqbal Kabir Jahid

Iqbal Kabir Jahid is working as a Professor in Department of Microbiology, Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST). He has completed his Undergrad and Graduation from Department of Microbiology, University of Dhaka. After that he worked as a scientist in icddr'b, Bangladesh. Then he joined in the Department of Microbiology, JUST in 2009 as an Assistant Professor. He completed his Ph.D. from the Chung-Ang University, South Korea. His research area is in Probiotics, Biofilm forming bacteria, Quorum sensing of Microorganisms, Food Safety and so on. He has completed a lot of research projects and received grants form a number of national and International funders. He is leading the Probiotic Lab in JUST and associate director in the Genome Center, JUST.